Files
codex/codex-rs/tui_app_server
Felipe Coury 79359fb5e7 fix(tui_app_server): fix remote subagent switching and agent names (#15513)
## TL;DR

This PR changes the `tui_app_server` _path_ in the following ways:

- add missing feature to show agent names (shows only UUIDs today) 
- add `Cmd/Alt+Arrows` navigation between agent conversations

## Problem

When the TUI connects to a remote app server, collab agent tool-call
items (spawn, wait, delegate, etc.) render thread UUIDs instead of
human-readable agent names because the `ChatWidget` never receives
nickname/role metadata for receiver threads. Separately, keyboard
next/previous agent navigation silently does nothing when the local
`AgentNavigationState` cache has not yet been populated with subagent
threads that the remote server already knows about.

Both issues share a root cause: in the remote (app-server) code path the
TUI never proactively fetches thread metadata. In the local code path
this metadata arrives naturally via spawn events the TUI itself
orchestrates, but in the remote path those events were processed by a
different client and the TUI only sees the resulting collab tool-call
notifications.

## Mental model

Collab agent tool-call notifications reference receiver threads by id,
but carry no nickname or role. The TUI needs that metadata in two
places:

1. **Rendering** -- `ChatWidget` converts `CollabAgentToolCall` items
into history cells. Without metadata, agent status lines show raw UUIDs.
2. **Navigation** -- `AgentNavigationState` tracks known threads for the
`/agent` picker and keyboard cycling. Without entries for remote
subagents, next/previous has nowhere to go.

This change closes the gap with two complementary strategies:

- **Eager hydration**: when any notification carries
`receiver_thread_ids`, the TUI fetches metadata (`thread/read`) for
threads it has not yet cached before the notification is rendered.
- **Backfill on thread switch**: when the user resumes, forks, or starts
a new app-server thread, the TUI fetches the full `thread/loaded/list`,
walks the parent-child spawn tree, and registers every descendant
subagent in both the navigation cache and the `ChatWidget` metadata map.

A new `collab_agent_metadata` side-table in `ChatWidget` stores
nickname/role keyed by `ThreadId`, kept in sync by `App` whenever it
calls `upsert_agent_picker_thread`. The `replace_chat_widget` helper
re-seeds this map from `AgentNavigationState` so that thread switches
(which reconstruct the widget) do not lose previously discovered
metadata.

## Non-goals

- This change does not alter the local (non-app-server) collab code
path. That path already receives metadata via spawn events and is
unaffected.
- No new protocol messages are introduced. The change uses existing
`thread/read` and `thread/loaded/list` RPCs.
- No changes to how `AgentNavigationState` orders or cycles through
threads. The traversal logic is unchanged; only the population of
entries is extended.

## Tradeoffs

- **Extra RPCs on notification path**:
`hydrate_collab_agent_metadata_for_notification` issues a `thread/read`
for each unknown receiver thread before the notification is forwarded to
rendering. This adds latency on the notification path but only fires
once per thread (the result is cached). The alternative -- rendering
first and backfilling names later -- would cause visible flicker as
UUIDs are replaced with names.
- **Backfill fetches all loaded threads**:
`backfill_loaded_subagent_threads` fetches the full loaded-thread list
and walks the spawn tree even when the user may only care about one
subagent. This is simple and correct but O(loaded_threads) per thread
switch. For typical session sizes this is negligible; it could become a
concern for sessions with hundreds of subagents.
- **Metadata duplication**: agent nickname/role is now stored in both
`AgentNavigationState` (for picker/label) and
`ChatWidget::collab_agent_metadata` (for rendering). The two are kept in
sync through `upsert_agent_picker_thread` and `replace_chat_widget`, but
there is no compile-time enforcement of this coupling.

## Architecture

### New module: `app::loaded_threads`

Pure function `find_loaded_subagent_threads_for_primary` that takes a
flat list of `Thread` objects and a primary thread id, then walks the
`SessionSource::SubAgent` parent-child edges to collect all transitive
descendants. Returns a sorted vec of `LoadedSubagentThread` (thread_id +
nickname + role). No async, no side effects -- designed for unit
testing.

### New methods on `App`

| Method | Purpose |
|--------|---------|
| `collab_receiver_thread_ids` | Extracts `receiver_thread_ids` from
`ItemStarted` / `ItemCompleted` collab notifications |
| `hydrate_collab_agent_metadata_for_notification` | Fetches and caches
metadata for unknown receiver threads before a notification is rendered
|
| `backfill_loaded_subagent_threads` | Bulk-fetches all loaded threads
and registers descendants of the primary thread |
| `adjacent_thread_id_with_backfill` | Attempts navigation, falls back
to backfill if the cache has no adjacent entry |
| `replace_chat_widget` | Replaces the widget and re-seeds its metadata
map from `AgentNavigationState` |

### New state in `ChatWidget`

`collab_agent_metadata: HashMap<ThreadId, CollabAgentMetadata>` -- a
lookup table that rendering functions consult to attach human-readable
names to collab tool-call items. Populated externally by `App` via
`set_collab_agent_metadata`.

### New method on `AppServerSession`

`thread_loaded_list` -- thin wrapper around
`ClientRequest::ThreadLoadedList`.

## Observability

- `tracing::warn` on invalid thread ids during hydration and backfill.
- `tracing::warn` on failed `thread/read` or `thread/loaded/list` RPCs
(with thread id and error).
- No new metrics or feature flags.

## Tests

-
**`loaded_threads::tests::finds_loaded_subagent_tree_for_primary_thread`**
-- unit test for the spawn-tree walk: verifies child and grandchild are
included, unrelated threads are excluded, and metadata is carried
through.
-
**`app::tests::replace_chat_widget_reseeds_collab_agent_metadata_for_replay`**
-- integration test that creates a `ChatWidget`, replaces it via
`replace_chat_widget`, replays a collab wait notification, and asserts
the rendered history cell contains the agent name rather than a UUID.
- **Updated snapshot** `app_server_collab_wait_items_render_history` --
the existing collab wait rendering test now sets metadata before sending
notifications, so the snapshot shows `Robie [explorer]` / `Ada
[reviewer]` instead of raw thread ids.

---------

Co-authored-by: Eric Traut <etraut@openai.com>
2026-03-25 12:50:42 -06:00
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